An Israeli policeman killed by friendly fire during a knife attack by a thirteen-year-old Palestinian

13 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

An Israeli policeman has died after being shot by another officer during an attempted stabbing attack by a 13-year-old Palestinian teenager at a security checkpoint at the entrance to the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem.

The incident took place on Monday afternoon, when an Israeli border policeman and a security guard boarded a bus to question passengers heading to Jerusalem for a routine inspection. The Palestinian teenager then took out a knife, according to the police version, collected by the newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.

The Palestinian stabbed the policeman and wounded him. Then the security guard opened fire and accidentally killed the policeman. The attacker has been identified as Mohamed Bassel Fathi Zalbani, a resident of the Shuafat refugee camp, who was detained without being hit by shots.

The police officer, identified as 22-year-old Sergeant Asil Sawaed, was taken to Hadassah-Mount Scopus University Hospital in critical condition and later died due to the severity of his injuries.

Originally from the Bedouin village of Husniya in northern Israel, Sawaed was a non-command officer who had completed compulsory military service in the Israeli Army.

After the incident, control of the Shuafat refugee camp has been closed and the Police have launched an operation in the area.

Hours earlier, a 14-year-old Palestinian also from Shuafat stabbed and lightly injured an Israeli teenager in the Old City of Jerusalem. The suspect is in custody.

A Hamas spokesman has welcomed both attacks, calling them “heroic operations” in response to the recent announcement by the Israeli government to legalize nine more Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

“Our young people face the aggression of the occupation and the fascism of this extremist government with courage and violence,” said the head of the Palestinian Islamist group.